Tau Suan

Ingredients:
- 200 grammes of split green / mung beans (soak for 15 minutes – if using rice cooker, soak for 30 minutes if steaming)
- 4 pandan leaves (washed and knotted)
- 200 grammes sugar / rock sugar
- 1 bowl potato starch (mix potato flour with water till you get a thick starchy solution)
- 2 litres water

Preparation:
1) Cook the split green beans by using rice cooker / steaming. If you are using the rice cooker, place beans in the cooker and add water till water has just covered the surface. Turn on the rice cooker and allow it to cook. If you are steaming the beans, drain water and steam it on a suitable plate for 20 minutes on high heat. (Taste the beans frequently after the first 15 minutes to check if they are done. Rinse the cooked beans lightly under running water and set aside.) After the beans have cooked, gently fluff them using a fork.

2) Cook sugar syrup by bringing to boil the 2 litres of water in a pot / sauce pan with the pandan leaves thrown in. Once water is boiling, add sugar and stir till sugar has fully melted. (Some also add dried tangerine peel – to make a light syrup, sweetened to suit yourself.)

3) Gradually stir in the potato starch mixture into the sugar syrup to thicken the syrup till it becomes gluey. Take care to add potato starch in small amounts at a time and stir well to prevent lumpiness. (For every litre of syrup, dissolve 20g of water chestnut starch and 15g of potato starch in a little water, then stir into the syrup and simmer for a few minutes until it thickens.)

4) Once the syrup has thicken, stir in the mung beans, and when the tau suan just comes up to a boil, turn off the heat. Serve immediately with thinly sliced yau char kueh.

Note: Once most starches reach their thickening peak, further stirring and heating will thin them out, so if you want to make tau suan in advance, cook the mung beans and make the syrup first, then thicken and assemble the dessert just before serving.

Dried Beancurd and Ginkgo Nuts Dessert (白果腐竹雞蛋薏米糖水)

This is one of my favourite Chinese desserts of all time. This dessert tastes light, refreshing and nourishing. It is also really easy to make.

(Serves 6 to 8)

Ingredients:
- 50g holland barley (洋薏米), rinsed a few times
- 1800ml water
- 5 pandan leaves, tied to a knot
- 20 pitted red dates
- 100g soft beancurd skin sheets (三边腐竹)
- 100g canned (boiled and shelled) ginkgo nuts (白果) (I used half can)
- 130g rock sugar (冰糖) (adjust to taste)

Preparation:
1) Soak bean curd sheets in a large bowl of water till soft, around 5 minutes.

2) In a pot, add water, barley, pandan leaves and red dates. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 20-30 minutes till barley is soft.

3) Add gingko nuts and soaked softened beancurd sheets (do not add the water used to soak the beancurd sheets. After adding beancurd, it easily spills over the stove. Be careful.) and continue simmering for another 10 minutes, or until the beancurd skin reached the consistency you like (big pieces or congee-like fine consistency; I like somewhere in between).

4) Add rock sugar to taste, turn off the flame when the sugar is fully dissolved. Discard pandan leaves. Serve warm or chilled.

5) When the dessert is almost done, you can add eggs and cook to your preferred texture. I just broke the eggs and added into the dessert, immediately turned off the heat. Let the heat in the pot continue to cook, about 5 minutes, then I got soft-boiled eggs in the dessert. Really enjoyed!

Cooking Tips:
1) Make sure you buy the soft type of beancurd skin to make this dessert. The other type, which is harder and oilier, is more suitable for making Chinese style meat stews (lor bah).

2) Get the finer type of barley, usually labelled as holland barley (洋薏米). They are easier to cook and softer to eat.

3) If using raw ginkgo nuts, you will need to increase the simmering time in step 2 (around 1 hour) till the nuts are soft. Add a bit more water too. Before using, gently crack open the shells with a mortar and pestle, insert a toothpick to flick out the dirt in the center of the nut which is bitter tasting.

4) Instead of canned ginkgo nuts, you can use those which are vacuum packed as well. Because of the way the nuts are compressed by the vacuum packaging which distorts their shape, I personally prefer the canned type.

5) You can substitute gingko nuts with lotus nuts, or use a combination of both.